#its run was quite literally the highpeak of yugioh fandom

[zeravmeta]

god honestly the entire group dynamic of the lancers was so funny the more i look back on it cuz like ok reiji by that point in the show had basically been stalking yuya and watching his every move and the moment he saw berserk mode he was like "PERFECT my cardgame monster superweapon is ready i just have to beat subservience into him via card game" meanwhile yuya was riding the high of nearly being killed like 4 separate times and losing his girlfriend only to learn that the entire tournament was a setup by reiji to assemble his strike force and that reiji knowingly sacrificed most of the teams in order to make a team of survivors so he's understandably incredibly pissed and frustrated but he cant actually swear at reijis face about it not only because he needs his dimension teleporter tech to find his gf but also reira is there and he HAS to be a good role model for this child because reiji sure wont be since yknow he's literally bringing his younger sibling into a war then we have serena who just approaches yuya and goes "hey uh i know this is awkward as shit since your girlfriend was kidnapped because she looks exactly like me and she swapped clothes with me specifically so i wouldnt be kidnapped and i know your smiles thing sounds nice but im just here to maim and kill oh and rescue ou- YOUR, girlfriend" which is then triple awkward because shun is also pissed as hell and not allowed to just go around killing people he doesn't like because reiji has him on a leash and now this dude who looks like his best friend (and also possibly killed him) and this girl who looks like his sister (who is from the military school that destroyed his town) are stuck to his side and he's being told to cooperate with them and if shun doesn't comply then he'll maybe be killed by reijis hired-on-the-spot ninja bodyguard tsukikage who for the most part is just watching all this shit go down and is on a genuine revenge quest against one of yuyas best friends who betrayed him but his employers little sibling is a small child He Cant Not Protect which causes reira to look up to him and feel pressured to step up into this conflict they're incredibly not ready for but don't worry gongenzaka is there to be the one stable influence amongst the group who reminds them to actually work together and since he has like 2 ft and twice the weight in pure muscle on everyone else no one crosses him even shun since he knows that despite his experiences that gongenzaka would kick his ass but Holy Shit dennis is annoying and can't shut up about his entertainment role because Hes Totally Not A Traitor Guys but like half the group kind of already knew they just kept him around because he's the one person who actually knows how to make money for them and scout information and he's also a perfect target for yuya to project and pretend he hasn't been thrown into a fight for his life and on top of all that theres shingo who just kind of happened to survive the events and most of the group went "wow you survived? You?" where even reiji is like "...well pendulum can make the unexpected possible i guess" and shingos only there to prove a point that he can absolutely beat yuya at his own game (he can't) and then on their maiden voyage mission they fell apart within 5 minutes and got arrested and didn't properly reunite until the end of the arc. what the hell was reiji thinking